Transforming a garden is an intricate process with many moving parts; often, complete redesigns involve multiple trades, so finding a company that can deliver the overall vision for your new garden is a challenge. Landscaping is expensive, and if you commit to spending thousands of pounds, you should always ensure you find the best Wakefield landscape gardeners for your project. How do you find a reputable landscaping company to trust with your redesign? It starts with the project's research phase, where you begin considering what you want to achieve.
As a whole, the landscaping industry has an awful reputation for overpromising and underdelivering. Whilst it is true that managing a landscaping project is complex, with proper processes implemented and adequate planning undertaken, the lifecycle of a bespoke garden transformation can run smoothly! Here at Wakefield Landscapes, we adopt a design-driven approach to landscaping; with our digital garden design service, you know exactly how the project will unfold.
In this article, our landscape gardeners in Wakefield will explore some factors you should consider when choosing a landscaping company for your project. Hopefully, by the time you have finished reading this post, we will equip you with the knowledge needed to avoid common mistakes.
Look through their online presence carefully
When looking for a Wakefield landscaper, your journey will probably start online. Most people find us through Google, Facebook and Instagram as a technology-driven company; we focus on being visible online! You should dig a little deeper if you have discovered a company you like and are considering requesting a quote. The first place we would start is by checking out their reviews. Look everywhere - Google, Facebook and Trustpilot; if previous customers have had a negative experience, the likelihood is that they will have shouted about it somewhere.
Facebook is the go-to social media platform for landscaping companies to advertise their services; you should be able to gain an insight into the types of projects the company is undertaking. An inactive social media presence is always an alarm bell for our Wakefield landscape gardeners because if you create beautiful gardens, surely you will want to show them to the world. If they have no follows and no engagement, this would be cause for concern. A well-established social media presence is a sign that the company is active.
Do you like their previous work?
The most suitable company for your project is likely to be determined by the job's complexity. If you want a new patio, any Wakefield landscaper should be capable. When looking for something more extravagant with bespoke features, you will want to find a company with experience designing high-calibre gardens. Looking through their portfolio is always a great place to start to determine whether the company can build your desired garden.
Here at Wakefield Landscapes, we create high-quality gardens with the best materials available; this allows us to ensure that your new garden will offer you the longevity that you expect. Looking through our portfolio, you will find all the different garden designs, ranging from an ultra-modern layout with contemporary features to something a little more dated to fit into the traditional English category. Our garden designers in Wakefield are well versed in creating spaces to suit everyone's taste whilst accommodating differing budgets.
One issue commonly faced by landscaping companies is rouge tradespeople pinching their photographs and showcasing them as their own. Before you commission your project with a particular company, ensure the work showcased in their portfolio is their own. To see if a photo has been stolen from elsewhere online, you can use Google's reverse image search; this will show you whether it is found on any other websites online.
Request a consultation with a Wakefield landscape gardener
To get this far, a company must be doing something right. They have passed the online portion of the checklist, and the next step is for you to meet with them at your property. Your first consultation is an opportunity to discuss your project's scope, outline any ideas you have, and get some input from a professional Wakefield landscaper. As they say, first impressions are essential; when you meet the representative from your chosen company, weigh whether you think their company will be the right fit. Some customers get as many as five quotes; it is better to be thorough than to regret jumping in later in the project's lifecycle.
In the landscaping industry, it is becoming more common for the initial consultation to have a fee. Here at Wakefield Landscapes, we offer a telephone or Zoom consultation free of charge. The initial remote consultation is an opportunity for you to get to know us and how we work at Wakefield Landscapes. If you are happy with everything discussed on the phone, we will arrange an initial site visit; these currently cost £50 to cover the expenses behind the scenes. However, if you decide to go ahead with our digital garden design service, we always deduct the consultation fee from the cost of the job.
To ensure that you make the most of your appointment, our Wakefield landscape gardeners ask potential customers to write down any questions before their meeting. In the heat of the moment, many people forget to ask important questions or to highlight challenges we may need to overcome when designing their garden.
The digital design process and getting your quote
Our processes at Wakefield Landscapes are different to your average landscaping company. Many small firms will offer you a guesstimate quotation, where they say we can lay some paving here and artificial grass over there. The scattergun approach to landscaping can work for smaller projects. However, our landscape gardeners in Wakefield offer our digital garden design service for anything a little more significant or complex, ensuring that your project goes to plan.
At your appointment, we will undertake a comprehensive site survey, collecting the data necessary to create an accurate master plan for your project. We use the latest GPS measuring technology from our friends over at Moasure to increase the accuracy of our designs. Suppose you decide to go ahead with our design service. In that case, your Wakefield garden designer will ask you to complete a questionnaire to help them create an initial concept for your job, alongside any other details you discussed at your consultation. You will be in regular contact with your designer throughout the process, with the opportunity to make as many amendments as are required to achieve your ideal garden design.
Once you are happy with your digital design, we will pass request quotes back from our panel of highly skilled Wakefield landscapers, ensuring to get you three quotes to find the right one for you.
Getting your quotes back
Landscaping is not cheap, and we must be honest about that at this early stage. When we send your master plan off for pricing, we expect a quotation back within seven days, give or take a little, depending on the scale of the project. As part of the digital design service, we will get you three quotes from our panel of landscape gardeners in Wakefield, allowing you to compare; all three are quoting for the same project to an identical specification. Some companies' quotes come back higher due to their experience level, available resources, and many other factors. We are always happy to offer our opinion when quotes come back from our trusted partners.
The only advantage of us handling this part of the process for you is that we have carefully vetted these Wakefield landscapers. When we recommend someone to you, we have complete confidence in their ability to install your chosen design. Equally, you are free to go away and get other quotations for the project. When customers take their design elsewhere, we always caution, do not automatically choose the lowest price; there is usually a reason why a company is significantly cheaper than everyone else. Saving money is excellent, but not when it comes at the expense of quality, it could cost you more to put right in the future.
Give Wakefield Landscapes the green light to start the project
When a company has ticked all of your boxes, it is time to start thinking about scheduling your project. Any reputable landscaping company will likely book up well in advance. The faster you go through the design process, the quicker you can secure your dates. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, more people are staying home and have shifted their focus to transforming their gardens.
Now that you have reached the end of this post, you should be better equipped when looking for a Wakefield landscape gardener to undertake your garden transformation. We regularly meet unsuspecting couples who have fallen foul to poor quality; doing your research ahead of time can avoid headaches a little later. If you want to discuss your project, request an initial consultation with Wakefield Landscapes.
